JOHN PAUL II
The diocesan phase of the process of beatification of John Paul II was concluded on Saturday 1st April. A solemn mass was concelebrated in Krakow Cathedral on Sunday 2 April, the anniversary of his death, with a Via Crucis through the streets of the city in the evening. These were the central events in the Polish city where Karol Wojtyla was teacher and bishop, before becoming Pope. But the whole of Poland, not just Krakow, will commemorate the Pope, who led the Church for over a quarter century, on the first anniversary of his death. It will do so with innumerable celebrations, Stations of the Cross, prayer meetings and meditations. The so-called “rogatory tribunal” of the cause of beatification has been held in Krakow over the last few months, concurrently with the main tribunal opened in the diocese of Rome, where John Paul II spent almost thirty years of his life. The postulator of the cause, Father Slawomir Oder, reported that the idea is gaining ground of instituting a second rogatory process also in the USA, where the presence is being ascertained of numerous “witnesses” ready to make depositions with declarations, written affidavits and documents considered significant. The cause of beatification for Pope John Paul II has already registered one presumed “miracle” considered particularly important, pending the reports of medical practitioners to corroborate it: namely, the recovery of a French nun from Parkinson’s disease. Scores of reported miracles in other parts of the world, they too awaiting analysis by scientists, have also been reported. A special website has been created (http://www.vicariatusurbis.org/Beatificazione/) in five languages with all the news on the process of beatification. The languages will soon rise to eight.
